1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to chimney demolition equipment and methods related thereto, and more particularly relates to chimney demolition equipment for demolishing chimneys from the top down and methods for demolishing chimneys.
2. Description of the Related Art
Historically, chimney demolition techniques have involved utilizing explosions, long boom crane demolition from the ground, and sawing and dropping of small pieces uncontrolled to the ground. Chimneys utilized in the power generation industry typically range from 200 feet to 1500 feet in height and have diameters of 40 feet to 120 feet with a taper that varies from vertical plumb to an approximate 2 percent taper. The power generation industry is in the process of building new chimney stacks having scrubbers to meet various environmental requirements. Typically these new chimney stacks will be constructed adjacent the old chimney stacks in order to avoid costly erection of long runs of inlet and outlet gas ducts, but results in the need to economically demolish these old chimneys in a controlled manner to maintain a stable stack during the demolition to minimize the risk of damaging the surrounding power station facilities.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for controlled demolition of chimney stacks.